Late Morning Gallery Turns Everyday Objects Into Art in Singapore

A wooden spoon can be a utensil, a sculpture, or a small invitation to pay closer attention. That idea runs through Late Morning Gallery, the Singapore space founded by Belinda Chen, where everyday objects and the people who make them take centre stage.

The gallery’s recent exhibition, 100 Wooden Spoons, made the case with a single, familiar form. Chinese artist Du Yu carved each spoon from golden nanmu wood, giving some lightning-shaped handles and others the outline of a thumb. More conventional designs sat alongside them. Across the collection, the wood’s colour, grain and texture remain part of the work rather than details to be hidden.

It’s a useful introduction to Chen’s way of thinking: an object doesn’t need an elaborate purpose or a high price to change how an ordinary moment feels. A handmade spoon can carry the maker’s decisions in its shape and finish; a cup can make a familiar drink feel newly considered. The gallery asks visitors to notice those choices, and the material knowledge behind them.

From homeware shop to gallery

Chen started Late Morning in 2023 as a lifestyle and homeware shop on South Bridge Road. Its selection brought together brands that were then harder to find locally, including English cutlery specialist David Mellor and Japanese homeware label Marumitsu Poterie, whose pieces have a playful sensibility.

A small cafe, Living Room, followed at the back of the shop. With space for around eight people, it offers visitors a place to pause. The gallery extends that same interest in daily rituals, while giving artists more room to show work on its own terms.

Late Morning Gallery opened in July in a second-floor unit a couple of doors down from the original store. Chen has presented five exhibitions so far, with subjects ranging from wooden spoons to textile dyeing and ceramics. The participating artists come from across East Asia, including Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.

Chen is interested in how makers approach materials, and how their cultural backgrounds and individual experiences shape their work. Her selection isn’t governed by a single category: sculpture and a useful kitchen object can both reveal a maker’s relationship with a material and the process of shaping it.

“What draws me to these works isn’t necessarily whether they fit into a particular category,” she says. “It’s more about the thought, sensitivity and perspective behind them.”

Objects as an entry point

That attention to domestic life has appeared in Chen’s work before. She previously made YouTube content about home and lifestyle, sharing considered interiors, daily routines and the objects that help make a house feel like home. The gallery builds on that perspective, but offers artists space to shape a fuller exhibition around their ideas.

Chen sees the shop and gallery as connected ways to meet creative work. Someone might first come across Late Morning through a piece they want to use at home, then grow curious about its maker or the thinking behind it. The shop offers a practical starting point; the gallery makes space to spend time with work that may not be intended for everyday use.

That connection also explains why the gallery’s next plans extend beyond viewing. By year-end, Chen intends to set up ちょっと Chotto, an appointment-based tea and dessert experience inside the space. The Japanese word can refer to a small amount, a short duration or a mild degree—an apt name for an intimate gathering built around a brief pause.

Chotto brings together Chen’s interests in coffee, tea, desserts, cooking and hosting. Seasonal treats will be served in the cups, plates and other wares on display, giving guests a chance to handle the pieces rather than encounter them only as objects to admire. A cup held in the hand, with tea or coffee inside it, becomes part of a ritual and a shared occasion. Use changes the way an object is understood: weight, shape and surface matter in a different way once the piece is in someone’s hands.

A space for returning

Chen is also planning small gatherings with visiting artists and craftspeople. These would let guests hear directly from makers and learn about their practices, adding conversation and process to the experience of seeing finished work. For a gallery focused on the relationship between material and maker, that exchange feels like a natural extension of the exhibitions.

Her hope is that people will feel comfortable coming back even when they don’t know what they’ll find. An exhibition, a conversation with a maker or an afternoon over tea and dessert can each offer a different way into the same subject: how objects shape the everyday. At Late Morning, the invitation is to look closely, then carry that attention into the routines beyond the gallery.

Late Morning Gallery is located on the second floor of 228A South Bridge Road. It’s open 11am - 7pm on weekends, by appointment only from Tuesdays - Fridays (closed on Mondays).